Advantages And Disadvantages Of Solar Energy For Lighting

Renewable Energy Overview 2020

COVID-19 ravages the world in 2020, but still adds more than 260GW of renewable energy capacity globally in 2020, nearly 50% more than previously recorded. IRENA’s annual Renewable Energy Capacity Statistics 2021 shows that the share of renewables energy in all new generation capacity has risen sharply for the second year in a row. More than 80% of all new generation capacity added last year was renewable, with solar and wind accounting for 91 percent of new renewables.

Total solar capacity has now reached about the same level as wind capacity, mainly due to the expansion in Asia in 2020 (78 GW). Major capacity additions have been made in China (49 GW) and Vietnam (11 GW). Japan also added more than 5 GW, and India and the Republic of Korea both expanded their solar capacity by more than 4 GW. The United States added 15 GW.

The Advantages Of Solar Energy Lighting System

Cost-effective solution to reduce electricity costs

Street lighting systems using solar power will provide huge economic savings without the need for in-ground cables or expensive crews to install them. Another benefit of great economic factor is that after installation, you no longer have to pay high electricity bills.

Infinity and renewable energy

Solar energy, like wind and tidal energy and other clean energy, produces almost no pollution when it is developed and used. The energy radiated by the sun every second is about 118,668kw, and the total amount of solar energy reaching the earth’s surface in a year is equivalent to about 120,465,696 billion tons of standard coal, which is 10,000 times the current proven reserves of the world’s major energy sources. Compared to the finite nature of conventional energy, solar energy has an inexhaustible, inexhaustible “infinity”

Long Lifespan

The emergence of solar energy technology and products, in line with the needs of social development and energy saving and environmental protection requirements, the life of solar lights is much higher than the life of ordinary electric lights, such as solar lamps and lanterns of the main components – the service life of solar panel modules more than 25 years; LED lighting source life of 80000 hours; solar power storage LiFePO4 Lithium-ion Battery life span of 8 years.

Fully Monitoring and Control

As technology evolves, the cost of maintaining a solar lighting system becomes less and less. Low maintenance means you don’t need to spend anything extra on your solar system to keep it working optimally. And new technology is even effective in reducing the accumulation of dirt or dust or bird droppings on solar panels, which only need to be cleaned every once in a while. The new solar lighting system has been achieved can be monitored through wireless technology. Each solar lighting system can be connected to the network, to achieve full monitoring and control. You can observe the working status of each light on the cell phone app.

Easy installation

Ordinary utility lighting projects are complicated to install, laying cables, a lot of in-ground working. Then installation and commissioning, easy to rework. And the terrain and line requirements are complex, labor and auxiliary materials are costly. Solar energy light installation, because there is no need to access the utility, no need to lay complex lines, just make a cement base, and then fixed with stainless steel screws can be. The installation components are modularized, flexible and easy to install, so that users can choose and adjust the capacity of the solar street light according to their needs.

Wide Range Of Usage

A solar system, such as a solar energy technology, is a stand-alone off-grid system that does not need to be connected to the utility, which means that solar systems can be installed in remote areas or in areas that cannot be reached by power lines. For example, remote mountain villages, highway sides, desert areas, etc.

Safety

There are no safety hazards in solar street lights: solar lamps are 12V and 24V ultra-low voltage products, which are safe and reliable in operation. Although solar systems are installed in outdoor off-grid systems, reliable solar system products use anti-theft design. It can effectively prevent being stolen.

The Disadvantages Of Solar Energy Lighting System

High Initial Investment Cost

The total cost of a solar street light compared to the same power often system lights will be much higher, the main cost of solar street light system from the solar panels and batteries, different solar panels and battery prices will vary greatly, but performance is also relatively far apart. But with the maturity of technology and development than before, solar panels and battery prices in the near future will definitely come down.

Weather Dependent

Highly influenced by geographic and climatic conditions. Because of the reliance on the sun to provide energy, the local geographic climate and weather conditions directly affect the use of street lights. If the rainy days are too long, it will affect the length of the light, and if the continuous rainy weather is too long, it can only be configured with larger capacity backup batteries and low power LED lights, while the conversion efficiency of solar panels will also affect the collection of solar energy. This in turn will affect the cost of the whole system.

Installation limitations

Since it is carried out by collecting sunlight, this limits the installation orientation of solar panels to a certain extent. Therefore, the installation of some locations must be separated from the solar panel to install, which is the emergence of split solar light system solutions.

Dispersion

On average, near the Tropic of Cancer, in the summer in clearer weather, the irradiance of solar radiation at noon is the largest, the solar energy received in the 1m square area perpendicular to the direction of sunlight is about 1000W on average; if the average day and night throughout the year, it is only about 200W. And in winter roughly only half, cloudy days generally only about 1/5, such energy flow density is very low. Therefore, in the use of solar energy, want to get a certain conversion power, often need a fairly large area of a set of collection and conversion equipment, the cost is high.

Instability

Due to the limitations of natural conditions such as day and night, season, geographic latitude and altitude, as well as the influence of random factors such as sunshine, cloudiness, clouds and rain, the solar irradiance reaching a certain ground is both intermittent and highly unstable, which makes the large-scale application of solar energy more difficult. In order to make solar energy become a continuous, stable energy source, so that eventually become able to compete with conventional energy alternative energy, it is necessary to solve the problem of energy storage, that is, the sun’s radiation energy during the sunny day as much as possible stored for the night or rainy days, but the current energy storage is also one of the weaker links in the use of solar energy.

Low efficiency

The current level of development of solar energy utilization has been and promoted and realized in many areas, and is technically mature. However, there are solar energy utilization devices, because the conversion efficiency of solar panels is low, the cost is high, but some producers can already realistic 20% to 23% efficiency (monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic cells theoretical efficiency limit of 31%), in the future for quite some time, the further development of solar energy utilization, or mainly by the economic constraints.

Summary

In the long run, vigorous development of renewable energy can gradually improve the energy structure dominated by coal and oil, promote a more rational and efficient use of conventional energy resources, and alleviate energy-related environmental pollution problems. Solar energy is becoming increasingly attractive in terms of economics.

The uncertainty of the technology makes it more difficult to make choices, yet the opportunities and benefits are enormous for businesses seeking to make a profit and for a world that is becoming less dependent on fossil fuels, and solar power holds great promise.

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